Foursquare And Facebook Places Are Still Meaningless To Half Of U.K. Teenagers*

Foursquare and Facebook Places are still meaningless to half of
U.K. teenagers, according to a survey by Dubit, a youth
communications agency.

Most teens don't get the point of location-based services, and
those who do are too creeped out to use them, the 1,000-person
survey finds.

Also:

48% of teens have not heard of Places, Foursquare,
or other location services.

67% of teens who have heard of the services don’t use any of
them.

Only 27% of teens have heard of Foursquare.

Only 5% of teens who have heard of Foursquare actually use
it.

58% of teens who have heard of location services
don't "get the point" of them.

45% don't feel safe using location services.

Teens don't think checking in is rewarding. They rank
mayorships, badges, and points low on their list of reasons to
use location services.

We have to admit, we kind of agree with the teenagers on this
one. Checking in isn't rewarding and we don't care if we get
badges. So we're glad SCVNGR and Foursquare are working on
coupons and tiered rewards instead.

Once SCVNGR and Foursquare can regularly offer free coffees
alongside Starbucks checkins, then we'll be more likely to whip
out our phones, and we imagine teens will get more excited about
using the apps too.